Travis Barker and DJ AM critically injured in plane crash

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Former Blink 182 drummer Travis Barker and Hollywood music spinner D.J. AM were critically injured in a South Carolina plane crash that left four others dead, authorities said Saturday.

Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Les Dorr told AFP they and four others were on a Learjet 60 that crashed after takeoff from Columbia, South Carolina. The four people killed included two crew but Dorr did not immediately identify the four dead.

"Our understanding was that the two injured were Travis Barker and DJ AM" Dorr said, noting that the small jet had crashed onto a highway and burst into flames, apparently after a concert in Columbia.

Barker's marriage to former Miss USA, Shanna Moakler, was the focus of MTV's Meet the Barkers reality show (2005-2006). And after filing for divorce in 2006 his brief relationship with socialite-reality TV star Paris Hilton was tabloid fodder.

DJ AM was formerly engaged to Nicole Ritchie, who was Hilton's reality TV sidekick in "The Simple Life."

US Rapper Kanye West arrest at LAX for smashing paparazzo's camera

US rapper Kanye West has been arrested after grabbing a photographer's camera and smashing it on the ground at Los Angeles Airport.

LAPD police say the nine-time Grammy Award winner was arrested on suspicion of vandalism after the commercial photographer's camera valued at over $12,500 was broken.

Associated Press reports an airport spokesman, Marshall Lowe, as saying West and his bodyguard, Don Crowley, were arrested shortly before 8am yesterday local time.

After the incident, West, 31, tried to board his American Airlines flight at terminal four but was stopped by police before reaching security, reports entertainment website TMZ.com.

"A photographer was taking several pictures of Kanye West. West rushed the photographer and grabbed his camera. A struggle ensued and the guy was screaming, 'Police, help'," TMZ.com's cameraman, Erik, who witnessed the scuffle, said on their website.

"Kanye then took the still camera and threw it on the ground, breaking it into pieces," he said.

The TMZ cameraman, who recorded the altercation, claims that once West saw him filming he told him to hand over the video camera.

The video shows West wearing a grey hooded jumper throwing the flash part of the photographer's camera on the ground and it breaking into pieces.

It also shows his bodyguard, Crowley, throwing the body of the photographer's camera at the ground before surging at the TMZ cameraman.

In the video, airport officials ask West and his bodyguard to stop the scuffle, while others are heard calling for police, to which West's bodyguard replies, "there ain't no police man".

After explaining he had a press pass and a right to film inside the airport, West's bodyguard allegedly grabbed his camera, ripped off the microphone and viewfinder and smashed it to the ground also.

The airport spokesman said police are continuing to interview witnesses and West may be booked later this morning.

West and his bodyguard were held in police custody until posting $25,000 bail.

Kanye West Debuts New Song

Kanye West debuted a new song at the MTV Video Music Awards in Los Angeles on Sunday night (September 7), when he closed the show. Watch a clip of the performance here.

Despite saying last year that he wouldn’t support the music network after he failed to win an award, West performed a new song ‘Love Lockdown’ which he says he “wrote a week and a half ago. It’s my favorite song to date.”

Watch his MTV performance below.

Photo courtesy of Universal.

Jerry Reed dies at the age of 71

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Jerry Reed, a singer who became a good ol' boy actor in car chase movies like "Smokey and the Bandit," has died of complications from emphysema at 71.

His longtime booking agent, Carrie Moore-Reed, no relation to the star, said Reed died early Monday.

"He's one of the greatest entertainers in the world. That's the way I feel about him," Moore-Reed said.

Sony BMG Nashville Chairman Joe Galante called Reed a larger-than-life personality.

"Everything about Jerry was distinctive: his guitar playing, writing, voice and especially his sense of humor," Galante said. "I was honored to have worked with him."

Reed's catalog of country chart hits, from 1967 through 1983, were released under the label group's RCA imprint.

As a singer in the 1970s and early 1980s, Reed had a string of hits that included "Amos Moses," "When You're Hot, You're Hot," "East Bound and Down," "She Got the Goldmine (I Got the Shaft)" and "The Bird."

In the mid-1970s, he began acting in movies such as "Smokey and the Bandit" with Burt Reynolds, usually as a good ol' boy. But he was an ornery heavy in "Gator," directed by Reynolds, and a hateful coach in 1998's "The Waterboy," starring Adam Sandler.

Reynolds gave him a shiny black 1980 Trans Am like the one they used in "Smokey and the Bandit."

Reed and Kris Kristofferson paved the way for Nashville music personalities to make inroads into films. Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson and Kenny Rogers (TV movies) followed their lead.

"I went around the corner to motion pictures," he said in a 1992 AP interview.

Reed had quadruple bypass surgery in June 1999.

Born in Atlanta, Reed learned to play guitar at age 8 when his mother bought him a $2 guitar and showed him how to play a G-chord.

He dropped out of high school to tour with Ernest Tubb and Faron Young.

At 17, he signed his first recording contract, with Capitol Records.

He moved to Nashville in the mid-1960s where he caught the eye of Chet Atkins.

He first established himself as a songwriter. Elvis Presley recorded two of his songs, "U.S. Male" and "Guitar Man" (both in 1968). He also wrote the hit "A Thing Called Love," which was recorded in 1972 by Johnny Cash. He also wrote songs for Brenda Lee, Tom Jones, Dean Martin, Nat King Cole and the Oak Ridge Boys.

Reed was voted instrumentalist of the year in 1970 by the Country Music Association.

He won a Grammy Award for "When You're Hot, You're Hot" in 1971. A year earlier, he shared a Grammy with Chet Atkins for their collaboration, "Me and Jerry." In 1992, Atkins and Reed won a Grammy for "Sneakin' Around."

Reed continued performing on the road into the late 1990s, doing about 80 shows a year.

"I'm proud of the songs, I'm proud of things that I did with Chet (Atkins), I'm proud that I played guitar and was accepted by musicians and guitar players," he told the AP in 1992.

In a 1998 interview with The Tennessean, he admitted that his acting ability was questionable.

"I used to watch people like Richard Burton and Mel Gibson and think, `I could never do that.'

"When people ask me what my motivation is, I have a simple answer: Money."

Associated Press Writer Joe Edwards contributed to this story.

Mackenzie Phillips Busted With Drugs

Mackenzie Phillips is seriously going to need to take it One Day at a Time after her latest run-in with the law.

The 48-year-old former TV star, whose role on the hit CBS sitcom was derailed in the early '80s due to a nasty drug habit, was collared this morning at Los Angeles International Airport after allegedly trying to bring heroin and cocaine aboard an airliner.

Phillips was going through security at LAX's Terminal 4 at approximately 10 a.m., when her bag was checked by a TSA officer, according to Sgt. Jim Holcomb, spokesman for Los Angeles Airport Police.

"During a second screening process, a small amount of what was believed to be heroin and cocaine was discovered on her person," Holcomb tells E! News.

Airport police were called to the scene and arrested Phillips on suspicion of possession of a controlled substance.

“She is being booked at Pacific Division and then transferred to Van Nuys,” adds Holcomb. Bail was set at $10,000.

Phillips, who played sister to Valerie Bertinelli on the long-running CBS show, is well acquainted with the booking process.

During One Day at a Time's 1979-80 season, she was collared for cocaine possession.

After turning up late for rehearsals on multiple occasions, producers gave her a six-week leave of absence. But her behavior continued to worsen until producers gave up and fired her.

Following a stint in rehab, Phillips rejoined the show, only to quit two years later when her drug problems persisted.

The daughter of Mamas & the Papas founder John Phillips (whom she blames for her drug habit) and socialite Suzy Adams, Phillips is the product of a showbiz family. Her stepmother is singer-actress Michelle Phillips and half-sisters include Bijou Phillips and Chynna Phillips.

Mackenzie Phillips, who performed as part of the revived Mamas & the Papas until her father's death in 2001, got her start in the industry at the age of 13 in the 1973 TV movie Go Ask Alice, about a 14-year-old girl pulled into a world of sex and drugs. Other credits include roles in American Graffiti, Baretta, ER, NYPD Blue and, most recently, CBS' Cold Case .

Cloris Leachman Dancing with the Stars

TMZ is reporting that 82 year-old actress Cloris Leachman was going to do Dancing With The Stars show, but they said no in favor of Toni Braxton instead.

Seems like the Dancing with the Stars news is coming fast and furious these days (it must be August). Yesterday Allison told you about Dan Marino not doing the show, and the day before that I told you that Dan Marino was going to do the show. Football players... can't make up their minds.

Now comes another name thrown into the mix: Tom Selleck! That's the latest rumor for the show. In fact, it's gone beyond the rumor stage and supposedly (emphasis on "supposedly") Selleck has already accepted the gig. Part of me wants to say "don't do it Tom!" but the show really does need an injection of real star power (if the names leaked this week really are accurate, though we know that they got Marino wrong). In other DWTS news, TMZ is reporting that 82 year-old actress Cloris Leachman was going to do the show, but they said no in favor of Toni Braxton instead.

Cloris Leachman has wanted to be on the show for a couple of seasons. That's too bad. She seems like an in-shape, feisty lady. I bet she would have done well.